


Meeting

by Bloody_Destination



Series: Dark Ace Series of Connected Drabbles [3]
Category: Storm Hawks (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-07-09 10:38:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19886236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bloody_Destination/pseuds/Bloody_Destination
Summary: Ace meets the Storm Hawks.





	Meeting

A year and six months. That is how long they’ve been on this Terra. That is how long it takes for the war to finally reach them. It’s a quiet morning when the Terra’s market is just opening and people are still in bed. There is no warning when the first quakes rock the land mass and fire erupts from several burning buildings. Then the early morning sun is being blocked by several Cyclonian Carriers. Skimmer engines are heard above the screams and crackling fire.

No one is prepared. The Terra was near the edge of the territory, but it should have been far enough away from the fighting. That is what most of the inhabitance had said.

Ace has been awake since before the sun had risen, preferring to see his mother off to the market. His mother liked to go early in order to bypass the rush of the crowd. But now they are separated by a burning Terra and Cyclonian Skimmers killing and capturing at their leisure.

He doesn’t spare a second thought as he rushes to town. It’s only a thirty-minute walk but for Ace, running at full speed, it feels like an eternity. He rushes past bodies he refuses to think about. Sees a small body with red hair and thinks he’s seen that face in his classroom. He tries not to look as people scream from the second story houses engulfed in flames.

He only just makes it to the market when a shot barely misses his leg and hits the ground just in front of him, sending him flying backwards. He’s disoriented for a few moments, just enough for a shadow to fall over him and red eyes meet a black visor of a Cyclonian Talon.

“What do we have here?” He says, reaching down and lifting Ace easily by the front of his shirt.

Another voice laughs from behind the man, “Looks like a Cyclonian half-bred bastard.”

“Lot of those, here.” The man means the Terra they are on, considering there are a large number of refugees just on this Terra alone, “This one’s still young. Could put him to good use in the mines or maybe even a Talon when he’s older.”

The one not holding him nods, “Put the bastard with the other prisoners.”

Ace struggles and kicks but it does nothing to loosen the hold on him. The man plans to put him on his skimmer and Ace struggles even harder because he can’t leave his mother alone. Can’t even imagine what they might do to her. He doesn’t want his mother put in the mines or made a soldier. She’s too kind, too delicate, for something like that.

They only just reach it when the skimmer is hit by an energy blast and a skimmer, bright and blue, is flying overhead, followed by a dozen Talon skimmers. The surprised Talon holding Ace loosens his hold enough for the boy to get his mouth around the wrist and bite hard enough to taste blood. A scream and then the hands are letting him go.

He almost runs but he knows he isn’t fast enough to escape on foot from a grown adult. So he kicks as hard as possible at the shin and the man goes down to his knee with a garbled shout, still in shock from the bite. Ace picks up a large rock, twice the size of his fist and slams it against the man’s head. He then turns to the other Talon, too distracted by the aerial fighting and the noise too loud for him to hear his comrades shout of pain and throws the rock as hard as he an at the man’s head. Both hit the ground.

He continues on into town, almost devoid of life now that the Sky Knights have arrived. He searches every building and stand his mother frequented and finds nothing but broken buildings and broken people. He screams for her, but no one hears over the hundred other screams and crackling fire and energy blasts.

He collapses against a building, sliding down until his backside touches the ground. He pulls his knees up and holds on until his knuckles go white and painful and barriers his head into his arms. He’s tired and weak and his seven-year-old body is at it’s limit and all he wants is his mother.

He’s weak and he hates himself.

_Why can’t I save my mama?_

_I promised…_

_I promised…_

Over and over, he repeats it in his head. His father is strong. If he was hear, he would have been able to save her. But Ace couldn’t. He promised, but he couldn’t.

He doesn’t know how long he sits there, crying into his arms. He doesn’t fight when hands start touching him, shaking his shoulder slightly, trying to lift his head. He only flinches slightly when those hands pick him up and cradle him against a broad chest and strong arms hold him steady.

“Papa?” He says weakly through tear blurred eyes, but all he sees is a young, tanned face and red hair and moss green eyes.

He can’t keep his eyes open for longer than a few seconds before they close, and blackness is the only thing that he sees. He isn’t unconscious but somewhere in between. The movement and the warm body holding him is somehow comforting. He hears voices talking above him, about him too.

“He’s alone.” A deep voice says quickly, “We can’t just leave him.”

“Have you even tried to look for his parents?” A woman’s voice, too high to be his mother’s.

There is a pause, “Well…no. But he was alone. Can’t we just keep him for now.”

“He isn’t a pet, boss. He’s a child.”

There’s a light chuckle, “You should’a seen him, Emala. He bites a Talon, kicks the guy then smashes his head with a rock and throws it and hits another in the head. It was great.”

She makes a dubious noise, “And what? That automatically makes him Storm Hawk material. I don’t think so, boss. Besides, he’s…he’s a Cyclonian.”

It becomes uncomfortably silent after that. The arms holding him tighten for a second before relaxing again, “He’s also a child and a citizen of Atmos. If anything, he’s a refugee escaping from Cyclonia.”

The woman sighs before gentle hands hard through his hair, “You can keep him, but only until we find his parents…if we find them.” A pause halts her damning words, “We didn’t make it in time, boss. Damn it. We should have been faster.”

Those strong arms put him down onto a soft mattress and a cold blanket replaces the warmth of the other’s body and then he’s left in silence as the two walk away, the lull of their voices disappearing with distance.

Ace is in and out of consciousness. The bits he remembers are short and blurry. He remembers a bronze skinned man with black eyes and black hair trying to feed him. He struggles until he’s too weak to move and then gives into the food. Then he sees black again. This goes on until he finally has strength enough to stay awake longer than a few minutes.

When he does finally wake up fully, he’s alone in a small room, sparsely decorated. There is a window next to the bed and what he sees is open, blue skies and the occasional cloud directly next to the glass. It takes him only a moment to realize he’s inside a Carrier. For a moment, he panics at the thought of being captured by the Talons, the thought of his mother being captured.

He struggles from the bed and his legs nearly give out underneath him when he stands but he pushes the pain and the pins and needles feeling away as he moves slowly towards the door. The door isn’t locked, and he begins to think he hasn’t been captured by Talons. They wouldn’t put a prisoner in such a room with an unlocked door. Nor, does he think, would a Cyclonian ship be this colorful.

He’s quiet as he moves down the hall, checking behind every turn before moving further. He plans to find a skimmer and escape, but he’s a kid, not even half the size of an adult, skinny and short for his age. His father used to teach him underhanded tricks to win against bigger opponents and his mother continued it when they had to leave.

He looks past one corner and in front of him is a man with darkly tanned skin with black hair and a matching goatee. He vaguely remembers the man from the few times he’s woken up before with the man trying to give him food or water. He knows for a fact that he’s thrown up on the man at least once that he can remember.

“I just checked, man.” The man is saying, “He wasn’t in there. I just checked there, too. Yeah, there too.”

The man sounds exasperated as he talks into a communicator he holds in his hand. He can’t hear what is being said on the other end, though, but it sounds like they are already looking for him.

“I’ll call you back if I find anything.” A pause, “I’ll check the hanger than.”

He puts the communicator away after that and begins walking toward the hallway corner Ace is hiding in. He quickly ducks into an open door, but the man doesn’t turn into the hallway, instead keeps on walking straight. Ace makes the choice to follow the man, then. He’s headed towards the hanger, which means skimmer and Ace’s chance at escape.

It takes several turns and several attempts at catching up without being heard and then the man is opening a door to a large room. The door remains open, so Ace waits a few moments before following after. He can’t chance waiting for the man to come out before he goes in, in case there is an alarm set to the door if opened without some sort of access key.

He isn’t even a step into the door when a hand shoots out from the side and catches the back of his shirt, lifting him several feet into the air, as if he weights nothing.

“I gotta admit, I didn’t notice you at first, kid.” The deep voice chuckles, “But you were kinda too obvious there for me not to notice. But good job anyway.”

Ace struggles for a solid thirty seconds as he dangles in the air. He attempts to claw at the hand holding him but metal wrist guards and thick gloves make that impossible. He tries to kick but his legs are too short to reach and the man’s incredibly tall with long limbs.

He goes limp after that thirty seconds and just dangles, “That didn’t take too long. I thought Lightning said you had some fight in you.”

The man laughs anyway as he takes out the communicator from his pocket.

“Lightning, this is Wing. I’m in the hanger. I found the kid..er…rather, he kinda found me.”

“That’s great!” The excited voice, sounding nearly like a puppy on the other end, exclaimed.

“I’ll take him back to his room, you can-“

He doesn’t get further than that. The man, seemingly thinking Ace has finished with his rebellious stint, slackens his arms and rests Ace’s feet back on the ground as he talked. It’s in that moment Ace drops his entire body weight, the sudden movement causing the man, Wing, to lose his grip. Ace moves quickly, aiming for the unprotected stomach of the man with his entire body weight.

The man doubles over with a groan, more surprised then in pain, but Ace takes advantage. It was one of the things his parents taught him. If there is a large attacker, it is always best to bring them down to Ace’s size with any means necessary. It’s easy too, when they underestimate Ace for being a tiny child. He backs up just enough to lift his foot and connect it with the side of the man’s head and he goes down. Not unconscious but dazed and possibly concussed.

There is a frenzied chatter on the com as several voices come to life and Ace realizes he has very little time to act. He gives the room a look, locating the air lock. It’s a small hanger, enough room for the four skimmers and a few piles of scraps. It takes him a moment to figure out the controls, but his mother was always good at fixing and tinkering with tech, something she passed on to him and he has the air lock open, revealing the open sky. Wind rustles his hair as he moves to the closest skimmer, hotwiring the thing until he hears the engine purring.

“Hold on! Stop, kid! Wait!” He recognizes the voice from before he passed out.

He looks over to the man standing next to the door and the slowly recovering dark haired man. He’s tall and wiry but muscled with deep red hair and those same moss green eyes he remembers looking into. He has a panicked look in them as he stares at Ace.

“Hey, listen to me for a moment.” He sounds out of breath, but he keeps his distance because Ace already has the skimmer ready to fly and he’s sure if he moves closer it might spook Ace enough to leave, “It’s been several days since I brought you on board. Several days since we left Terra Millus.”

Ace’s eyes widen at that. If it’s been so long, he might not be able to find his way back for probably twice as long but he has to because his mother will be looking for him and he can’t just leave her.

“You want to return, but you can’t. Everyone left the Terra. Even if they didn’t, we already checked, kid. Your mom isn’t there.”

His breath catches as he looked questioningly at the man, his fingers loosening around the handle bars and the man takes a step forward.

“We looked and asked questions but she wasn’t there, not even a body. She may have been taken by the Talons or she may have escaped.” He walks closer when it’s clear that Ace isn’t looking at him anymore, instead staring out into the open sky of the hanger door. He feels the wind cooling against tears running down his cheeks and for the millionth time since they first fled Cyclonia, he once again feels like he’s failed to protect the people he loves most.

Arms come around his shoulders, holding him against his chest as Ace lets out a sob, “It’s going to be alright. We can help you find her, if you want. If all she did was flee the Terra, it shouldn’t be too hard to find her, okay?”

“And if Cyclonia has her?” He sobbed again.

“Then we’ll end this war and get her back.”

A groan has the red-haired man picking him up again and facing towards the man Ace took down, slowly standing up, a hand holding his stomach and the other rubbing the side of his face, “Alright, Lightning. I believe you. The kid’s got some kick to him.”

Ace only glares at the man but refuses to let go of the red-haired man, Lightning, holding him like how his father used to when he’d woken from a bad dream. He closes his eyes tightly and pretends it is black hair and red eyes looking down at him.

“I’m Lightning, by the way.” He pauses, as if waiting and it takes a minute for Ace to understand.

He mumbles as much as he can with his head buried in the man’s chest, “Ace.”

“Welcome to the Storm Hawks, Ace.”


End file.
